


Puppetmaster

by All_My_Characters_Are_Dead



Series: Mages and Familiars [32]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: OC-centric, the Warden backstory this AU definitely needs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-25 22:58:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6213541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/All_My_Characters_Are_Dead/pseuds/All_My_Characters_Are_Dead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The path to becoming the Warden wasn't easy, and it wasn't what she wanted when she started out. Before the Warden became an authority figure in Windswept and helped instigate a war, she was just a demon with unusual powers.</p><p>Or: An Origin Story for the Villain</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Loss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [You_Will_Be_Shattered](https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Will_Be_Shattered/gifts).



At the edge of the crow group's territory lived a family of demons. The parents were average, no special talents or alliances to make them stand out, but their two daughters shared an extraordinary gift, unlike any demon before. Their names were Ringu and Haswari, and they could control minds. The young demons kept their powers secret, because if anyone found out, their family would be in danger. For years, as the children grew, the parents protected them, concealing their existence from the crows and other potential familiars. But one day, when the parents were out, an ambitious mage who wanted to rise in the ranks of the Windswept Mage Guild encountered the parents. The mage overpowered the demons, and threatened the mother's life to get the father to accept a bond. Once the father was securely bonded as the ambitious mage's familiar, the mage killed the mother.

Ringu and Haswari were left alone, not knowing what had happened to their parents until the crows came to claim the small territory their family had maintained. Seeing that the territory was still occupied, the crows backed off, but one small, very young demon among their ranks. He was a talented and eager demon with magic manipulation abilities, and he was curious about the sisters in their small territory.

Ringu noticed immediately when the intruder entered her territory, and she lay in wait, crouched in her sleek panther form, until the intruder was in the perfect position. Then she struck, leaping from the shadows and bowling him over. She dug her claws into his shoulder and was about to send a surge of magic through him - to control him, to turn him away - when he spoke.

"I've never seen a demon with purple eyes before," he said, seemingly unaware of the danger he was in or the pain in his shoulder. Ringu paused, her magic fading. After a moment's hesitation, she shifted to her human form.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "And what do you want?"

"My name is Kageyama," he answered. "You're one of the sisters who lives out here, right? No one knows anything about you, and there aren't many young demons in the crow group, so I thought I would come meet you!" Ringu hesitated, searching his expression for any sign of bad intentions from him.

"Ringu, where'd you go?" Ringu tensed, recognizing Haswari's voice.

"I don't want to fight you," Kageyama said. "Or your sister." Ringu growled, putting pressure on his injured shoulder, and he winced.

"If you attack her, I'll kill you, no matter what group you're part of," she warned.

"I won't," he replied. "I promise." Ringu sighed and got off of him, eyeing his wound warily.

"Ringu!" Haswari called, closer now. With a final warning glance at Kageyama, Ringu turned in the direction of her sister's voice.

"Over here, Haswari," Ringu called back. Moments later, Haswari appeared between the trees, skipping toward them. When she saw Kageyama, her eyes widened, then narrowed suspiciously when she noticed his bleeding shoulder. "This is Kageyama. He's one of the crows."

"He's hurt," Haswari said with a frown. "We should get him back to them."

"But I came to meet you two," Kageyama protested.

"You've met us. Now shoo," Ringu grumbled.

"Can I come back?" Kageyama asked. "Please?" Ringu and Haswari exchanged glances.

"We'll meet you at the border between our territory and crow territory tomorrow morning," Ringu told him. "We can talk more then. And...I'm sorry about your shoulder."

"It's my own fault for trespassing," Kageyama replied. He grinned. "I'll see you two tomorrow!" Then he turned and darted off, back toward his group's land.

The three of them became friends, meeting up almost every day to explore the forest. Kageyama showed them all of the best places in the crow group's territory, and they showed him their favorite places in their own in return. Nearly a year passed, and all three developed their abilities, Kageyama becoming well known for his skill at manipulating magic and Ringu and Haswari disguising their control magic as magic manipulation by trying to imitate Kageyama's results. Slowly, Ringu grew to trust the young crow, but never enough to tell him the truth of her and her sister's powers. She did, however, ask him to take Haswari to the crow group and protect her if anything happened to Ringu.

One morning, Ringu woke to an urgent tugging sensation pulling at her mind. She recognized the feeling at once; it was the feeling of a mage trying to summon potential familiars. She was about to reject the call, as she had every time she'd felt it before, but this time, the pull didn't feel imperious and demanding. It felt...young, and eager. Like a mage who was looking for a friend, rather than a servant. Ringu glanced over at Haswari's sleeping form, then relaxed and answered the call. Answering didn't mean offering a bond, and with Haswari safely asleep, there was no way the mage would be able to force Ringu into a bond, so what was the harm? After all, Ringu could always just change the mage's mind if she needed to.

Ringu let the summoning magic pull her from her territory, to a room she'd never seen before. A young mage stood at the edge of a circle carved into the stone floor, staring at her. He was barely more than a child, she saw. She smiled fondly; he looked like he was younger than Yachi, the little healer crow Ringu had met once before, when she was in crow territory with Kageyama.

"Hello," Ringu greeted the boy. "I'm Ringu. What's your name?" The young mage stared at her with something akin to awe as he stepped forward.

"Your eyes are purple," he whispered, grinning. Ringu couldn't help but return the grin; he was so young, so innocent. She could see herself as his familiar, guiding and protect him as he grew and developed his power. "I didn't know nature spirits could have purple eyes." Ringu blinked, but her grin didn't fade.

"Well, I'm not a nature spirit, but demons don't usually have purple eyes, either," she told him. Instantly, the grin on his face vanished. Ringu felt her own smile fade a little, surprised by his response.

"You're a demon?" the boy whispered. Ringu nodded hesitantly. What was upsetting the boy? "Are you going to eat my soul?" What?

"What? Of course not!" she laughed. She couldn't help it; she might be able to alter his thoughts, actions, and memories, but eat a soul? Where did he get that idea? She tried to imagine sweet, eager Kageyama eating a soul, and laughed again at the absurdity of it. A whimper caught her attention, and her laughter fled. The boy was cowering away from her, his eyes wide with terror. "Why are you so afraid?" she asked, stepping toward him. "I came because you wanted a familiar."

"You're a demon! Go back to wherever you came from!" the boy shrieked. Ringu frowned and reached toward him.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I want to be your friend," she told him. The young mage screamed and lashed out, magic swelling. The air sharpened and cut into her skin, making her gasp at the pain. He was attacking her! Ringu stumbled backwards, but the air kept coming, kept slicing, kept hurting. She cried out in pain as a particularly deep slash hit her leg. Her blood dripped to the floor. She reached out, her own magic swelling defensively as she squeezed her eyes shut. She wanted him to stop, she wanted his magic to vanish, she wanted for this to never have happened. Her magic pulsed, and the air stopped attacking her. The boy's cries fell silent. Ringu opened her eyes. The boy was staring into space, his expression blank. Empty. Ringu stepped forward. "Kid?" He turned toward her, studied her, but there was no recognition in his gaze.

"Who are you?" he asked. Ringu blinked. She'd wanted for none of this to have happened, but she hadn't meant to...what? Erase his memory? She bit her lip and looked around for the exit.

"I'm no one," she said. Then she ran, her leg protesting with each step, her blood flowing from the wound. She ran blindly, past mages and familiars who stared at her in shock, past doorways and down halls, until she finally found a door that led outside. She fled the building, shifting to her panther form when she reached the safety of the forest. Her leg hurt. The other cuts on her body hurt. Her heart hurt, because that sweet-looking little mage had been terrified of her, for whatever reason, and she had wiped his memory.

Maybe it was for the best, though. Mages were all the same anyway, right? Selfish, horrible people who looked down on demons...or thought that demons ate souls, for some unfathomable reason. Ringu had been foolish to hope, to let the eagerness in the summoning spell sweep her up and pull her in. She would go back to her territory, apologize to Haswari for disappearing, and everything would go back to normal.

Except that when she returned home after two days of limping, injured, through the forest, Haswari was gone, and when Ringu went to the crows for help, she discovered Kageyama was gone, too. He'd been invited to another Guild's Hall to meet with their Guildmaster, and had become that Guildmaster's familiar. Kageyama had joined the mages' side, and no one knew what had happened to Haswari.

Ringu was alone.


	2. Search

Ringu lay low for a few days, healing and listening. The crows knew nothing; they had been focused on Kageyama becoming a familiar, and on an apparent friendship between one of their allies and some young Windswept enchanter. Eventually, Ringu decided to try hiring Windswept to search for Haswari. Mage Guilds took on jobs like that, right? But when Ringu went to the Guild Hall and requested the job, she was turned away.

"We don't take orders from potentials," the mage at the information board snapped. "Come back when you have a mage to hold your leash." Ringu snarled and debated changing his mind about taking orders from her, but an earth mage wearing the uniform of the Windswept guards approached, stern-faced and white-haired despite his obvious youth. Ringu scowled and walked out of the Guild Hall, the earth mage following, probably to make sure she actually left. As she stepped outside, she noticed one of the Windswept mages heading for the forest. She tensed; she'd heard that one of the unaligned demons in the forest had a friend in Windswept. The crows knew more about a suppressor friend of theirs and his enchanter then they did about Haswari's disappearance, and while Ringu hadn't been interested in who Sugawara was or how nice it was that his mage friend brought him food a lot when she'd heard about it, she was interested now, because she didn't know Sugawara, but she had just become unfortunately familiar with Windswept's attitude toward potential familiars. She glanced over her shoulder. The guard was still following her. She turned, reached out, grabbed his arm and sent a surge of her magic through him.

Her mind stretched with her magic, and she knew a few things at once: the earth mage she was taking control of was Aone, the enchanter headed to the forest was Sawamura, and Aone was worried about Sawamura, because the senior mages were beginning to get suspicious of the enchanter's solo practice sessions in the forest.

Perfect. Ringu started toward the forest, the guard named Aone following her. She could feel him trying to resist her control, trying to figure out what was going on, but Ringu sent another pulse of magic into him, solidifying her control. She noticed a weapon rack of enchanted weapons as they reached the gate to exist the Guild's yard, and she directed Aone to grab one of them. Then she shifted to an animal form she didn't use often, a black dog, and continued toward the forest, following the scent trail of the enchanter.

She was going to find him, convince him to stay away from the crows' friend, and then deposit him and Aone back at their Guild Hall.

The confrontation didn't go according to plan. For some unfathomable reason, the demon named Sugawara defended the enchanter, even outright attacking Ringu, who had to tear up his shoulder with her fangs to get him to stop. She did get the two mages back to their Guild, though, and from the look on Sugawara's face when she and Aone escorted Sawamura from the clearing, Ringu was sure the demon was in no danger of trusting a mage again.

With Windswept being a dead end and Sawamura safely being dealt with, hopefully banned from ever entering the forest again, Ringu turned her attention to the far side of the forest, where Guilds like Moonlit Shadows and Nekoma were. She wouldn't approach them directly, not after the welcome Windswept had given her, but perhaps she could find out if they knew anything by sneaking around and browsing the memories of some of their members.

Ringu searched, scouring every inch of the forest and the villages and even traveling to the outlying human-owned farms, but she heard nothing. Nothing, for six whole months, until a rumor of a green-eyed demon girl who had gotten caught in the crossfire between the snake group and a Windswept patrol when the potential familiar group ventured too close to town brought her back. The snakes, Ringu knew, had an uneasy truce with the crows, but they didn't welcome outsiders or allow unallied demons or spirits to linger on their borders the way the crows did. The snakes also didn't get along with mages, and if it hadn't been for just how violently they expressed their dislike of outsiders, she might have tried making allies of them. She could have altered their memories, of course, but her control over large numbers of people was weak. She wasn't strong enough to manipulate a whole group, not yet anyway.

So she returned to Windswept, slipping in with her dog form and taking control of the first guard she found, searching his mind. The only thing he was thinking about was that enchanter Ringu had encountered before, Sawamura, and his...familiar? Sawamura had a familiar now? She dug deeper, momentarily distracted. It was Sugawara, the demon. He'd bonded with the enchanter despite everything. Ringu snarled to herself, frustration rising. She came back, chasing rumors that Windswept might have hurt or even killed Haswari, and she found that the enchanter had _bonded_ the demon she'd tried to save from being a member of this damned Guild.

They were on probation, the guard's memories told her, because the Guildmaster wanted to be sure of Sawamura's loyalties. Apparently he was too emotionally attached to Sugawara for the Guild's comfort.

Ringu debated taking control of a second guard and just hunting the enchanter down and killing him, but a better idea came to mind. The Guildmaster. If anyone would know if Windswept really had killed a demon in a skirmish, it would be the Guildmaster, right? But she knew from experience he probably wouldn't agree to see her, or let her get close enough to control him. She really should figure out a way to take control of people from a distance. But in the meantime, she could gather a few controlled mages, attack Sawamura and the demon he'd bonded, and let them capture her. She'd be taken to the Guildmaster to be punished, executed, whatever they did with potential familiars who dared attack one of their members, and that would give her a chance to get close enough to browse the Guildmaster's memories.

Ringu smirked and eyed the guard she'd been controlling. He wasn't strong enough, and his magic wasn't a kind she was used to manipulating - fire magic was rare in the areas she'd been travelling for the last six months - so she wiped his memory of her and went in search of a new mage or two to control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was shorter than I expected, and next chapter will probably be the last. In case anyone is wondering, yes this is taking place during Taking Flight.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been an introduction to the Warden's Backstory. Please feel free to comment!   
> There will be more about how she actually ended up with Windswept and became influential soon!


End file.
